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Factorio server requirements

What a Factorio server needs in CPU, memory, disk and bandwidth, by player count. Change the numbers for your own server; the sources are listed below.

Mods (Mod Portal / overhauls)
Assumptions

What it needs

CPU
2 coresSingle-thread heavy: clock speed matters more than core count.
Memory
4 GB
NVMe storage
30 GB
Traffic per month
27 GB
Busiest upload
under 1 Mbit/s

On Clouduxe

Room to grow

VDS MicroCore

2 dedicated cores, 8 GB DDR5, 100 GB NVMe, 8 TB traffic

₹4,970$52.49/mo

  • 4 GB more memory, 60 GB more NVMe.
  • Dedicated cores: your server never waits for a core another customer is using.
  • Headroom for busy evenings, more players, and the mods and updates you add later.
Deploy MicroCoreAbout MicroCore

By player count. Without mods (mod portal / overhauls); each step up in the calculator adds memory, disk and sometimes a core.

PlayersCPUMemoryNVMeTraffic a monthFits your loadRoom to grow
22 cores3.5 GB30 GB14 GBVPS MiniVDS MicroCore
42 cores4 GB30 GB27 GBVPS MiniVDS MicroCore
82 cores5 GB30 GB54 GBVPS StarterVDS MicroCore
162 cores7 GB30 GB109 GBVPS GrowthVDS MicroCore
243 cores9 GB30 GB163 GBVPS ProVDS FusionCore
323 cores11 GB30 GB218 GBVPS ProVDS FusionCore

Traffic assumes 35% of the player cap online on average across the month; change it under Assumptions in the calculator.

Where the numbers come from. Published figures first, then how the calculator turns them into a model.

Published requirements

How the model is built

Memory
3 GB plus 250 MB per player. Factorio's own community and hosting guides agree RAM tracks factory size/age far more than player count. Base and per-player figures are calibrated to reproduce the sourced starter (4GB at 2-4 players) and medium (6GB at 4-8 players) bands; heavy factories/megabases exceed this and are captured via the mods multiplier, not player count.
CPU
2 cores, one more for every 16 players. The main simulation loop runs mostly on a single thread, so clock speed and per-core throughput matter far more than core count; multiple sources warn that slow extra vCPUs give almost no UPS improvement. Cores scale very slowly with player count here because the real driver is factory complexity (belts, bots, trains, fluids), which the mods 'heavy' level accounts for (megabase setups need 4-6 fast cores regardless of headcount).
Disk
4 GB for the server plus 26 GB for saves and backups, on SSD or NVMe. Install itself is small (the headless Linux package strips graphics/sound and is far smaller than the full client), so most of this budget is autosaves, backups and world growth. A sourced hosting guide budgets about 30GB total for a small server, 50GB for a medium base, and 80-100GB NVMe for a megabase with mods; SSD/NVMe is called essential across sources, though it affects load/save times more than tick rate.
Bandwidth
60 kbit/s of upload per player. Factorio is explicitly bandwidth-light: the client-server protocol sends player inputs and deltas, not full game state, over a custom reliable layer on UDP. Sources describe a handful of players using only a few hundred kbps in aggregate; derived per-player figure follows from that, well under 1 Gbps saturation for typical player counts.
Mods (Mod Portal / overhauls)
Memory times 1.3 for some and 1.8 for heavy; a heavy load also adds a core.

The official wiki does not publish CPU/RAM figures; only ports and player-limit behavior are documented there. Numeric hardware guidance comes from widely used hosting guides and forum consensus, which strongly and consistently emphasize that factory size, map exploration and mods matter far more than player count. Treat the player-based bands here as loose, not hard cutoffs; two players on an old megabase can need more resources than eight players on a fresh map.

Before you set it up. The ports it listens on and what the guides say drives its load.

Ports

PortProtocolUsed for
34197UDPgame (default, configurable)

Game server hosting: every game we size, the protection each one gets, and the plan for it.

DDoS protection is on every Clouduxe plan. How Prism handles game traffic.

What drives the load

  • Factory complexity (belts, bots, trains, fluid networks) drives CPU load far more than player count. Two players running a megabase can need more CPU than eight players on a fresh map.
  • CPU clock speed and single-thread performance matter more than core count. The main simulation loop runs mostly on one thread, targeting 60 UPS (16.67ms per tick).
  • Overhaul mods (Bob's, Angel's, Space Exploration, Krastorio 2) add RAM at startup and their Lua scripts can noticeably slow tick time.
  • Use an SSD/NVMe. It will not raise your UPS ceiling but it matters for save/load speed and autosave stalls on a large map.

Factorio server questions

Talk to us
How much RAM does a Factorio server need?

About 3.5 GB for 2 players and 11 GB for 32, before mods (mod portal / overhauls). Factorio's own community and hosting guides agree RAM tracks factory size/age far more than player count. Base and per-player figures are calibrated to reproduce the sourced starter (4GB at 2-4 players) and medium (6GB at 4-8 players) bands; heavy factories/megabases exceed this and are captured via the mods multiplier, not player count.

How many CPU cores does a Factorio server need?

2 for 2 players, 3 for 32. The server is single-thread heavy, so the clock speed of one core matters more than how many cores it has. The main simulation loop runs mostly on a single thread, so clock speed and per-core throughput matter far more than core count; multiple sources warn that slow extra vCPUs give almost no UPS improvement. Cores scale very slowly with player count here because the real driver is factory complexity (belts, bots, trains, fluids), which the mods 'heavy' level accounts for (megabase setups need 4-6 fast cores regardless of headcount).

How much bandwidth does a Factorio server use?

About 60 kbit/s of upload per connected player, so under 1 Mbit/s with 4 players online and about 27 GB a month if 35% of that cap is online on average. Factorio is explicitly bandwidth-light: the client-server protocol sends player inputs and deltas, not full game state, over a custom reliable layer on UDP. Sources describe a handful of players using only a few hundred kbps in aggregate; derived per-player figure follows from that, well under 1 Gbps saturation for typical player counts.

Which Clouduxe plan should I pick for Factorio?

For 4 players, VPS Mini fits the load and VDS MicroCore leaves room to grow. Every plan includes DDoS protection: 17 Tbps of upstream mitigation plus Clouduxe Prism on the server.

Other games. The same calculator, sized from each game's own documentation.

All calculators

Host Factorio on VPS Mini.

Sized for 4 players, with DDoS protection included. Or talk to us about a bigger server.

See VPS MiniSize another server